LCQ11: Enhancing regulation of cross-boundary remittance services
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
LCQ11: Enhancing regulation of cross-boundary remittance services It has been reported that quite a number of disputes and complaints involving cross-boundary remittance services have arisen in recent years, and the public has much concern about the security of cross-boundary remittances to the Mainland. Regarding enhancing regulation of cross-boundary remittance services, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) from 2019 to July 2025, of the respective numbers of (i) premises for operating cash note exchange and (ii) premises for operating cryptocurrency trading in Hong Kong that obtained a Money Service Operator (MSO) licence and operated remittance services (set out in Table 1);
Year(2) from 2019 to July 2025, of the number of complaints or requests for assistance received by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) concerning remittances from Hong Kong to the Mainland, as well as the amounts involved in such cases, with a breakdown by nature of cases (set out in Table 2);
Table 2
Nature of cases(3) Regarding cases where problems arise during cross-boundary remittance process, whether the authorities will consider classifying the relevant remittance institutions (such as money changers) as failing to meet the “fit and proper person” criteria for a MSO licence, based on non-compliances confirmed by the government authorities of the remittance destination (e.g. using non-compliant third-party transfers during the remittance process, the remittance being classified as all or part of the funds for money laundering or terrorist financing, etc.); if not, of the reasons for that; and
(4) as it is learnt that some money changers require customers to sign “transaction notes” containing additional disclaimers and terms before providing cross-boundary remittance services, thereby exempting themselves from liability should problems arise from such remittances, whether the authorities will consider further regulating money changers holding an MSO licence to prevent them from evading the liability through certain exemption clauses; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Year (as at year-end) Regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency trading services, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) conducted a public consultation from June to August 2025 on the legislative proposals for regulating digital asset trading service providers. The FSTB and the SFC are formulating details of the licensing regimes based on the feedback received, with a target of submitting a bill to the Legislative Council in 2026.
(2) As regards the complaints and assistance requests received by the C&ED concerning remittances from Hong Kong to the Mainland, they mainly involve cases where funds remitted through money service operators to Mainland bank accounts were frozen. Between 2019 and 2022, the C&ED did not receive such reports or requests for assistance. From 2023 to the first two quarters of 2025, the C&ED received a total of 1 046 assistance requests involving frozen remittances to Mainland bank accounts through money service operators, involving 98 money service operators and an amount of approximately Renminbi (RMB) 63 million in total.
(as at end-June)(RMB million)Note: Some money service operators were involved in more than one assistance request.
The C&ED has contacted all affected individuals and has actively followed up with the relevant licensed money service operators to facilitate communication and negotiations between the parties involved. With the C&ED’s intervention, the situation of frozen remittances in 359 cases has been resolved so far, involving a total amount of approximately RMB 19 million. In addition, the C&ED will enhance collaboration with relevant Mainland authorities to assist the affected individuals.Issued at HKT 14:00